Interview: FAYNE Talk Debut Album “Journals”

Montreal metal groovers Fayne released their latest offering “Journals” in the late November 2018. The album was mixed and mastered by Jamie King at the Basement Recording, and it brings eight songs of tech-influenced progressive metal. The band spoke for our webzine about the release, but we also delve into questions about gear, favorites, and more.

Hey guys. How are you doing?Hey, we’re doing great! Thanks for having us.You have recently launched your debut full-length album entitled “Journals.” How do you feel about the release?We were very stoked to release this record as it’s our first full length and it served as a necessary step in defining our sound and the direction in which we will go as a band. We took this release more seriously, planned the way we wanted to promote the record, and took it step by step. It paid off with a sold out launch party in our hometown of Montreal, and a gorgeous music video to go with our first single. The response to both the video and the shows have been really awesome so far and we hope it continues to turn some heads.

How much of a challenge was to work on the album?Overall, we were dodging bullets in the form of time and personnel. We lost our previous singer in the beginning of the recording process and had to shift our mindset to finding an integral piece of the team. It wasn’t easy keeping focus but we were strongly compelled to see it through and fortunately found a great fit and ultimately battled against our hectic schedules to write and record vocals in tandem with the laying down of guitars and bass.What is your opinion about the current progressive metal(core) scene?It’s actually in a good spot at the moment. It’s much easier to have a good sounding record on a limited budget. The genre is a little saturated as most genres are, making it harder to stand out, however, it doesn’t stop anyone from continuing to write and release new and original music. If anything, this helps push the boundaries.Can you tell me something about your influences?When it comes to anything metalcore-related, a lot of people say we steer more towards an “old school” sound, which to an extent, we can agree with. But we pull influence from more recent artists in the genre too. That’s not to say that we only take inspiration from metal bands. Our tastes include genres very different from what we play. You can catch us listening to jazz at our pad on any other day.

That’s a tough one. We listen to different kinds of music all the time, but if we had to give you 5 they’d be:

Colors – Between the Buried and Me

Mirrors – Misery Signals

Language – The Contortionist

One Of Us Is The Killer – The Dillinger Escape Plan

To Pimp A Butterfly – Kendrick Lamar

We’d like to include a very honorable mention to

Drunk – Thundercat.Can you tell me a little bit more about the gear you used to record “Journals”?

For drum recording, we used a hybrid of current and vintage gear at the Freq Shop (Montreal, Canada). We used an Orange Ad200 model for Bass with a Darkglass Alpha/Omega for some dirt through a Musicman Sterling. Guitars were tracked through a J48 and an Axe-Fx II using the Friedman HBE models for the most part with some special appearances by 5150 & dual recto. All tracked on my NGB Custom guitar and my trusty LTD Ec-1000. Vocals were mainly SM7b and AT2020 (I know..i know…but it worked with the source really well!) through a Neve style pre. Overall, pretty standard setup. We were concerned with getting the album out and experimentation felt the impact. We definitely will be experimenting with other sounds and tones for our next release.

Besides the release of the album, are there any other plans for the future?

We’re working on a live video for one of the songs off of Journals, booking shows, writing new songs, and trying as many different ways as we can to get our music out there. The industry is constantly changing, which means that artists have to adapt to that change and we’re just trying to ride that wave.

Any words for the potential new fans?

We love to make music that connects with people, so check out our album “Journals”! If you like it, great, and thank you! Please share it with a friend! We hope to see you soon!